Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Painting and other things

Once again, school is about to start.  I  have been going to school regularly since last week for the new teachers pre-service training.  I even hosted one of the sessions with the new teachers.  It has been a tight schedule ever since.

I have started taking up Chinese painting with Mr. Ceasar Cheng who holds classes at the 4th floor every Saturdays at the Fully Booked in Taguig.  It is a wonderful experience and I am beginning to paint in a different style which is more spontaneous but clear and impressionistic way.

My thinking is that Chinese painting would liberate my inhibitions with paint, especially, with watercolor,  which to my observation of the masters like Alvaro Castagnet, is more impressionistic than anything else.  I have always been bound to fuzz on too much detail when doing watercolor and I don't like what I have been doing with the medium so far.  With Chinese painting, I become more loose with the medium and hopefully, would see things more in a painterly way.  Should I learn to do what I have set out to do, I would probably have the guts to join my former classmate, Buds Convocar, and his group the Philippine Plein Air Painters Association, who meets every last Sunday of the month for a painting session.

I have been painting in oil more frequently now.  While I am still developing my style, I think I am making progress towards that goal of perfecting my art.  I have now incorporated detailed hand(s) on my work and probably a face to suggest the importance of these two functions in our lives.  I still do not know where this will take me but I am going ahead with this plan.  I kind of like what I am seeing so far.  Given a few more months, I will master a technique and develop my own style.

I have also written my third song which I collaborated with Ms. Tess Panaligan who did the music and the arrangement of the song.  This song is for the retirees this year. In my mind, I would like to peek into the minds of those who are about to retire.  What would it be like when after a long period of time, suddenly, everything shall stop?  Will it be a sad event knowing that you will be stepping for the last time on the grounds of the institution you have learned to love? Will it be a sad moment knowing that you will be set apart from your friends? Your friends who have shared your glories in the past and those who have witnessed you at your most vulnerable moment?  Or will it be a joyous occasion knowing that it will be a cessation of a seemingly invisible bondage?

My idea of the song is that to an outsider, retirement would seem like an end.   Using the usual imagery of dusk and dawn to signify renewal and death, I opined that no matter what time of day, they share the same face.  It will be upon those that perceive the fading out or fading in of  the sun to make what they think of the spectacular view of either sunrise or sunset.  The song goes like this:

Paalam muna mga kaibigan
I
ang sabi mo'y takip silim
ang tingin ko'y bukang-liwayway
habang puso ko’y naninimdim
sumusukong pakaway-kaway

II
oo nga't ako’y palisan na
at kayo nama'y paroon pa
malayo pa ang dapit hapon
ng aking buhay na sinisinta

 III
di pa’ko titingin sa mga bituin
habol sa aninong likha ng dilim
nais kong inyong pakaisipin
meron pang talang pwede kong abutin

refrain
 masdan nyo’t iisa ang mukha
ng dapit hapon at  madaling araw
di ba’t pareho lang agaw dilim?
pahupa man o sisilay pa lamang
ang araw ay muling isisilang
tulad kong hihiwalay sa kadiliman

 IV
oo nga’t heto na’t dumating
at umiba na ng tutunguhin
sana nama’y di malimutan
halakhak, luha na aking iiwan

 V.
Paalam muna mga kaibigan
Maliit lang ang mundong ginagalawan
Pasasaan ba’t tayo’y magkikita
Kung hindi man dito  o ngayon
Maaaring bukas sa dako pa roon.

For those who do not speak Tagalog like my American friends, I did a very loose translation and it goes like this: 

So long for now my friend

I
You say sunset
I see sunrise
My heart is crestfallen
As I wave goodbye

II
Though I am leaving soon
And you’re still finding your way
Twilight is still a distance away
In my seemingly exhausted life

 III
I won’t be staring at the moon just yet,
Running after shadows created by its glow
All I ask from you is remember
There's a star I still have yet to reach

Refrain
Notice that dawn and dusk
Share the same face
They both exude partial darkness.
Whether the sun is setting
Or is just about to take a peek
The sun shall be born again
Just like me who shall rise  from the dark

 IV
I know the time has come
For me to change my course
I hope you won’t forget
Laughter and tears I shall leave behind

 V.
Farewell for now my friends
We live in such a small world
I know we shall meet again
If not here or now
Maybe tomorrow in a faraway land

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